Rose Bud
by KMPC
Summary: Imagination is what makes people unique. Eli and Clare look into a house that is for sale. Of course they can't buy it, but after hearing Clare out, things might change for the better. As Clare says, a rose can grow with you.


**A/N: **Well hello. This story was inspired when I was picking my aunty up with my mom. She lives in these fancy shmancy house, also know as, my DREAM house. Also this story may or may not be what I actually want ;) read and review please!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Degrassi, but I do own Aislinn Paul. or I will one day.

* * *

><p><strong>Summary:<strong>

"Imagination is what makes people unique. Eli and Clare look into a house that is for sale. Of course they can't buy it, but after hearing Clare out, things might change for the better. As Clare says, a rose can grow with you."

* * *

><p>"What are we doing today, babe?"<p>

"I don't know, just keep driving."

It was a cool winter day, and Eli and Clare had nothing to do. They were originally suppose to go to Tim Hortons to get some coffee and donuts for breakfast, but Eli wanted actual food so Clare decided on going to IHOP.

Clare was in grade twelve and Eli was a freshmen in University. They were both on winter break for the the next two months so it was the perfect opportunity to hang out and be together.

Eli went to University of Toronto to study English Literature and took some classes on creative writing. Clare was focusing on having an amazing last year at Degrassi.

Clare and Jake eventually got over their once relationship and came to terms that they were indeed step siblings. It took Clare a while, but she got over her selfishness and welcomed the Martins into her home with welcoming arms. Eli and Clare decided they wanted to try things out one more time.

Their relationship started off slowly. They went on a few dates telling each other all about their new lives. Clare was focusing more on art while Eli stuck to his writing. Clare and Alli drifted apart after Clare found out about her and Jake's secret relationship they had going on. After finding out about Alli's betrayal, Clare and Bianca grew a friendship.

Bianca met a guy who took care of her, and made sure she stayed out of trouble. Clare was there for Bianca when she needed her the most and vice versa. Bianca and Clare's friendship was an odd friendship. Clare made sure she kept Bianca tamed, yet still wild. Bianca helped Clare become more adventurous and open minded about being single. Bianca and Drew kept contact, but came to terms that it was best to stay friends.

Clare and Eli went driving after eating breakfast, trying to find something to do. Adam was hanging out with his girlfriend, Jackie. So, Clare and Eli decided it was going to be a boyfriend/girlfriend day. They drove to the new complex homes that were just a year old.

Clare has only lived in two houses her entire life. Eli, on the other hand, has lived in about four houses. So, they were just driving around in Eli's black Mitsubishi Lancer. It wasn't Morty, but it was what he wanted for his birthday.

"Oh! Eli there's an Open House on this street!"

Eli looked at her with a questioning look, "Yeah, and?"

Clare rolled her eyes and said, "and we should check it out! These houses are beautiful!"

Eli obliged with her and turned the corner onto the street, "I still don't understand why you want to look at these houses. It's not like we're buying one, Clare." Eli said as he parked the car across the street.

Clare turned to him and said, "You've never done this before?" Eli shook his head.

Clare turned her whole body to him and said, "You've never went to an open house before to look inside the houses? It's so much fun!"

Eli nodded and said, "I'm sure it is. Ha, but what do we tell the salesmen?"

Clare laughed and said, "We're just there to look around. Come on, Eli."

Before Eli could respond, she was already unbuckled and out of the car. Eli sighed in defeat and stepped out of the car. Eli locked the car up and made his way to the front door with Clare. As they were walking to the front door, a young couple around their thirties came walking out saying how nice the house was.

Clare and Eli walked to the front door together, hand in hand, and took their shoes off. They were greeted by the salesman as soon as they walked into the house.

"Hello! I'm Steven."

Clare and Eli shook hands with the old man and said, "Hi, i'm Clare and this is Eli. We're just here to look around."

Steven nodded and said, "No problem, if you have any questions at all, i'll be down here."

They both nodded and started walking around the foyer. It was beautiful hard wood flooring, new of course, with a grand staircase in the middle of the room. It had beige walls and a closet to the left. On the right was the way leading to the living room.

"Oh my god." Eli muttered as he looked at the details on the handrail of the staircase. It was made out of dark cherry wood. It had tiny details on the handrail. It was a fancy detailing. It looked as if it could be on a staircase in the early 1800s.

Eli gazed at the detailing and was baffled at how amazing such small detailing could make things a lot more beautiful. "Wow, look at this!" Eli said to Clare, pointing to the handrail.

Clare crossed her arms, "See? It's pretty damn fun! And you're only looking at the boring stuff!"

Clare looked up at the staircase and smiled, "You know, when I grow up, I'm gonna have a big family and we're gonna live in a house like this."

She started slowly walking up the stairs, leaving her hand against the handrail. "Is that so?" Eli watched from the bottom, watching her turn around and walk backwards.

"Mhm, and every morning, their gonna run down stairs because i'll have breakfast ready, and when it's time for bed, their father is going to carry each child up the stairs to tuck them into bed." Eli started walking up the stairs, continuing to listen to her tell her story.

Eli smiled as she twirled back to face upstairs, "And, did I mention, i'm having three children?" Eli chucked, "I think you mentioned that a few weeks ago."

Clare got to the second floor and saw that there were four bedrooms. "Yeah, I'm gonna have my first child, and then wait six years to have my second child." Clare opened up a door to her right, "And then, i'll wait four years until I have my youngest child."

Eli followed suit into the room and said, "So, youngest and oldest will be ten years apart, the oldest and middle will be six years apart, and the middle and youngest will be four years apart?"

Clare smiled and nodded. "This room, will be Molly's."

The room was already painted a light purple color. It had two windows, one facing the door, and one on the right side of the door next to the sliding closet. The closet was huge and had a mirror. It had beige carpeting that had vacuum lines on them.

"Molly?"Clare nodded and said, "She's going to be the oldest. She'll be the child that takes me to harvard."

Eli chuckled as he watched her sit on the window seat. "She's going to have my eyes, and her fathers nose."

"How do you know that?" Clare shrugged, "Mother's intuition?" Eli laughed as he walked around the room, "hm, Molly is going to be one lucky girl. This is a huge room."

Clare stood up and face one wall and said, "This is where her bed is going to be. I have a feeling she's going to be the girl that loves flowers."

Clare then turned to her right and said, "This is where her bookcase is going to be. It's going to be a white bookcase, with her height on the side." Eli smiled as he watched her get into imagination, explaining her future daughters room.

"I'm going to measure her height every birthday until she moves out. I'll even add her school picture to it." She then faced the corner of the room and she smiled big, "Oh! This is where i'm going to put her toys!" She's going to have so much fun in here! I can just see it."

Eli walked behind her and held her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder. "What do you imagine?"

Clare looked around the room, "I imagine coming in here every morning, waking her up, and help her pick out her outfit for school, and coming in here to play with her, and having her favorite guy - the dad of course- carry her up to bed every time that she falls asleep downstairs."

Clare turned around and faced Eli, "Come on, we didn't finish the tour yet." She ran out of the room and into the room across the hall.

"This one is going to belong to Blaze." Eli cocked his eyebrow, "Blaze? What kind of name is that?" Clare twirled with her arms wide open, "The kind of name that will belong to my second child."

"Okay, so, this room will be painted a dark red color." Clare turned around and said, "You know because Blaze is like fire, so…yeah." Clare giggled.

"He's going to be the rotten child, I can already see it." Clare smiled and looked out the window of the room. The room was painted with a deep blue and had accents of white. "This is where his bed will be, and this is where his huge poster of the Human Torch will be."

Eli leaned against the rooms door frame and crossed his arms, "Let me guess, Human Torch will be his favorite because his name means fire?" Clare laughed and said, "My college boy is so smart."

Eli rolled his eyes as he watched her look into the closet. "Clare, do you see that closet?" Clare nodded, "That's the closet that he's going to hide his girlfriend in because we all know a kid with the name Blaze, is definitely going to be a ladies man."

Clare shook her head with a smile, "Let me tell my fantasy please? What? Can you read my mind or something?" Eli shook his head at his girlfriend with the huge imagination.

"I can already see what heʻs going to look like." Clare started moving her hands in different motions, trying to interpret her future son. "Long black hair, but not too long, your kind of long. For some reason I can see him wearing glasses, of course a ladies man, and really into sports."

Clare looked around the room with a tiny smile. Eli watched her from the door frame, wondering how one girl could have such a huge imagination. "Come on, thereʻs another room."

They walked to the room right next door, to the left. Clare opened the bedroom door and walked in. The room was different from the others. It already was painted a pure white. Everything in the room was white. The two other rooms were somewhat colored, this room was different. Special.

The window in this room nearly took over one of the walls. It didn't have a sliding closet, but was a cherry red door with vintage carvings in it. The whole room had a vibe of old fashion. It was also somewhat colder.

Eli watched as Clare looked at every detail of the room. "Whose room is this?" Eli whispered.

Clare turned around slowly with a smile. The sun from outside started to shine through the window and it made Clare glow. She smiled softly and said, "This is my baby girl's room."

Eli was waiting for a name, but he didn't get one. "No name?" Clare shook her head and said, "No name, yet." Eli looked outside the window and he immediately walked to it, "Robin."

Clare scrunched her eyebrows together. "What?" Eli smirked and once again said, "Robin. You can name her Robin."

"Why Robin?" Eli motioned her to follow him to the window. She looked outside the window and she saw a Birds nest with a Robin and three baby chicks, all of them were hatched except for one. "Robin," Clare tested on her tongue, "I like it."

Clare moved to the middle of the room and said, "Over there is where her crib will be. Over there is where all of her teddy bears will be, and that is where the rocking chair is going to be." Clare walked to the corner of the room where the window was and stood there.

"This is where the rocking chair will be." Eli smiled and imagined an older version of Clare sitting on a comfy rocking chair holding a sleeping baby girl. A baby girl that resembled Eli.

"You know, when I grow up, my house is going to be filled with art. I'm going to design it. Every room is going to have a certain color scheme." Clare pointed outside, "and i'm going to have this huge garden. So huge. I'm going to grow fruits and vegetables, and the kids are going to help me out with it."

Clare walked up to Eli and brought him closer to her, "And, we're going to own a bunny." Eli locked his fingers around Clare's back and started swaying her back and forth. "Bunny? Why a bunny." Clare laid her head against his chest and said, "Because when I was younger, I always wanted a bunny like Thumper. Mom's allergic to rabbits, so I wasn't allowed to have one."

Eli looked into her eyes and said, "Tell me more about your dream house."

"Well, there's going to be a pool in the backyard, and it's going to be the only house my children live in." Eli chuckled, "I'm also going to walk them to school. During dinner time, when my husband gets off work, the kids are going to go crazy! They're going to attack him and tell him it's ready for dinner."

Eli twirled her and then started dancing again, "We're going to be a happy family. No bumps in the road."

Eli chewed on his bottom lip and brought her closer to his chest. He leaned his forehead against hers and whispered, "Do you want this house?" Clare gave him a confused look and said, "What?" He smiled and said, "I said, do you want this house?"

Clare didn't know how to answer. She nodded and looked him dead in the eye. "Yeah."

Eli kissed her nose, "Do you want to know what i'm going to do when I grow up?" Clare nodded and continued to dance with him.

"I'm going to marry this short, curly haired girl. I'm going to have three beautiful children with her." Clare bit her lip trying to hide her blushing face. "Can you guess what their names are going to be?"

"I think I can get an idea." Eli nodded, "She's an artist, she's gonna have this gorgeous garden, she'll make me dinner, and be my best friend forever."

Eli nuzzled his nose against her cheek, "She has pretty blue eyes, cute little freckles, and she's as sweet as sugar."

"I think we should go. It's getting late." Eli smiled and said, "Hold on, I have an idea." He grabbed Clare's hand and walked her downstairs out into the yard. He saw the garden that was already outside. He motioned her to follow him and then he made her stand in the garden. She looked confused as he left her for a while.

He came back with a small rose bud and a tiny smile on his face. Clare laughed and covered her face.

Eli came up to her and said, "Here you go, m'lady." Clare took it and said, "Why are you giving this to me?" Eli shrugged, "It's the start of everything." He took her free hand and said, "You want a house like this." He kissed her hand, "I'll give it to you."

**ooooooooooooooooooo**

"I'm home!"

"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"

Two little children ran up to Eli as he entered his home.

"Daddy, today in school I drew a picture of everyone!" Molly lifted up her picture of her family, "See? There's me, Blaze, Robyn, mommy, you, Uncle Adam, and Aunty Gina!" Eli smiled and kissed the little girl that could practically be Clare's twin.

Eli picked up his son and held out his fist, "What's up, little man?" Blaze punched his dad's fist and started mumbling incoherent words. Eli laughed and tickled his stomach, "I got you, son."

"Did I hear daddy come home?" Eli bit his lip, trying to hide his big smile, and walked his way to his wife, "Well, hello, Mama. Did you miss me?" Clare grinned, "mmm". Eli kissed Clare lovingly earning a eww from the two children. They both laughed it off. Eli took the baby out of Clare's hand and gently kissed her cheek.

"Well hello, my little Robin Hood. Did you miss daddy?"

Later that night after Eli tuck all of the kids into bed he silently walked into the kitchen where Clare was washing dishes.

"Mmm, alone time with my hunny." Clare laughed and said, "Hunny? well I can't wait to be with my hubby." Eli rolled his eyes and hugged her tiny body from behind.

"Hey, the rose buds finally came out." Eli pointed out the window where Clare's garden was. "Mmmhhhm, they're growing with us." She looked at him, he looked at her. They shared a kiss in their dream home.

It was the perfect comparison. Roses take over a year to actually grow from the seed. Eli and Clare's family took time to grow, but just like the Rose, it's well worth it, and it comes out beautiful.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Ugh! That was not how I wanted the ending to be like! But I do like it, so I won't complain. For any questions, go to my tumblr! Reviews please! Thanks! xoxo


End file.
